Improvement in counters for boots and shoes



e. w. DAY.

Improvement in Counte r s for Boots'and Shoes.

132,813. Patented Nov.5, 1872.-

AM PNDTWUTHUGRAPHIC CIZNXMSBORNEIS PROCESS) ijfivrrnn STATES PATENT QFFIO-E.

GEORGE W. DAY, OF HAVERHILL, MASSACHUSETTS, ASSIGNORTO HIMSELF I AND LUTHER DAY, OF SAME PLACE.

limraovsmar iN COUNTERS FOR coo-rs AND SHOES.

Specification forming part of Letters Patent No. 132,813, dated November 5, 1872.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, GEORGE W. DAY, of llaverhill, in the county of Essex and State of Massachusetts, have invented an Improved Counter or Heel-Stiffener for Boots and Shoes and do hereby declare the same to be fully described in the following specification, and represented in the accompanying drawing, in which Figures 1 and 2 denote, respectively, front and rear elevations of a counter or heel-stiffener constructed in accordance with my inv vention.

Counters or heel stiffeners as ordinarily made, consist of two or more pieces of leather,

' leather shavings, or leather board cut with the desired contour, the several plates or laminae being afterward pasted together and compressed, and finally the entire boundary of one side thereof reduced to a beveled-edge. It has been found that counters so made, when when applied to boots and shoes, and the latter are subjected to the action of snow or water, often become so impregnated with moisture as to destroy the adhesiveness of the paste; and as a consequence, the parts of the counter separate and fold over or become wrinkled, thereby not only producing much annoyance and discomfort to the wearer of the boot provided with such counter, but causing the upper of the heel-portion to run down or over for want of proper support.

I am aware that attempts have been made to obviate this difficulty by pasting the counter between the upper and the lining, as well as to the inner side of the upper, and connecting the counter, upper, and lining, or the counter and the upper by a line of sewing, but such has only partially remedied the difficulty, as the greater portion of the counter, or the entire area between the line of sewing and the sole, is still left unprotected and subject to the same evil as before.

The object of my invention is to produce a self-sustaining counter, which requires no sewnumber of blanks or pieces to constitute a counter of the requisite thickness. These are next pasted together and compressed by-means of compressing-rollers; and next, the side of the compound mass is reduced around 1ts'entire perimeter, by means of a skiving or reduc ing machine, to a beveled-edge next, a series of rows of holes is made transversely through the counter by means of a machine provided with punches or awls. Small metallic rivets, nails, or other equivalent metallic connectors are inserted in the said holes, either by machinery or otherwise, and the whole is next passed under an upsetting-press, whereby the metallic connectors are clinched or upset, and the parts firmly connected. I would remark that the laminae or pieces of leather or other material composing the counter may be united by a continuous wire passed through holes made in the counter, but I do not consider such as practical'a method as that last men. tioned.

In the aforesaid drawing, A denotes the counter or material constituting the same and a a, &c., the nails or metallic connectors.

Having described my invention, what I claim as an improved article of manufacture, 1s-- The improved counter or heelstiffener composed of two or more layers of leather or other material, as described, when united by means of metallic connections, as and for the pur- 

